Lobbyists Jump On Dorner Standoff To Promote Drones

Drone industry lobbyists have cynically seized upon the Christopher Dorner standoff with San Bernardino police, saying that if they had used UAVs, lives would have been saved.

Dorner is believed to have shot at least two police officers and killed one of them during the gun fight.

“Had a [drone] been able to be used in that environment, who knows what could have happened,” said Peter Bale, chairman of the board for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International,

Speaking at the organization’s annual program review in Virginia, Bale insinuated that privacy advocates were to blame for lives lost because they have “pulled the FAA into uncharted territory” by opposing the widespread roll out of drones.

“We believe the FAA should focus on their core mission, which is safety,” he said. Approval of further drones has been “delayed many months because the FAA is being pulled into the privacy debate.”